Sir John Finch and Viscountess Anne Conway: Two Unpublished Letters

Nofes and Documents SIR JOHN FINCH AND VISCOUNTESS ANNE CONWAY: TWO UNPUBLISHED LEnERS By T. L. Underwood* Sir John Finch was born in 1626 to Sir Heneage Finch and his first wife, Frances. He took degrees at Oxford and Cambridge and then studied at the University of Padua where he received his M.D. After the Restoration Finch was made a Fellow of the Royal CoUege of Physicians and a Fellow of the Royal Society. In the latter organization he was appointed to a committee for the development of a Ubrary, and while abroad he attempted to promote communication between members of the Society and foreigners interested in scientific endeavors. But perhaps his most notable activities were political in nature, for he served as minister to the Grand Duke of Tuscany and as ambassador at Constantinople. Finch's Ufe and that of his longtime friend and companion Sir Thomas Baines have been described in a short work by Archibald MaUoch.1 Finch died in 1682 and was buried beside Baines at Cambridge. Finch's half-sister Anne was born in 1631 to Sir Heneage Finch and his second wife, Elizabeth (Frances had died in 1627). In 1651 Anne married Viscount Edward Conway, but the two were often separated as the result of his interests in government and military affairs. A primary interest of Viscountess Conway was the study of philosophy, and it led her to write several treatises, one of which was published. It also led to friendship and correspondence with Dr. Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist. More was favorably impressed with her intellectual abilities and dedicated to her his treatise entitled An Antidote Against Atheism declaring that "The high opinion or rather certain knowledge I have of your singular Wit and Virtues, has emboldened, or to speak more properly, commanded me to make a choice of none other than yourself for a *Professor of History, University of Minnesota, Morris. 1. Archibald Malloch, Finch and Baines: A Seventeenth Century Friendship (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1917). Articles on Finch, his father, his brother Heneage, and Baines appear in The Dictionary of National Biography. 112 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS113 Patronesse of this Present Treatise."2 Most of her correspondence with More and others has been edited by Marjorie Hope Nicolson.3 Tragically, Viscountess Conway from her youth was afflicted with a mysterious ailment which caused her severe headaches and other physical suffering. Such suffering apparently made the employment of Quakers as servants attractive to her because she found them "so still, quiet and very serious."4 She was attracted to Quakers in other ways also, for in 1675 she was in contact with William Penn and admitted to reading Quaker books.5 It was probably in this same year that she accepted Quaker principles as her own. Viscount Conway was upset at her joining the Quakers whom he considered "an unpleasing sort of people," and Henry More reportedly wept when he learned of her conversion.6 Nevertheless, she remained faithful to the Quaker cause for the remainder of her life. When she died at Ragley in Warwickshire in 1679, Viscount Conway was abroad in Ireland and arrangements were therefore made for her body to be preserved in spirits of wine and placed in a coffin with glass opposite her face so that her husband could see her once more before her burial. Her funeral was apparently a simple one as she had requested, and someone later provided her 2.Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism (London, 1653), [p. I]. Anne's own treatise first appeared in Latin at Amsterdam among a collection of treatises (1690) and later was published in English with the title The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy, Concerning God, Christ, and the Creatures (1692). Additional biographical information is to be found in The Dictionary of National Biography; Sarah H. Steevens, "Anne, Viscountess Conway," Friends' Quarterly Examiner, VIII (1874), 197-207; Joseph J. Green, "Correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, Quaker Lady, 1675," Journal of the Friends Historical Society, VII (1910), 7-17, 49-55; and in Nicolson's work cited below. 3.Marjorie Hope Nicolson, ed., Conway Letters: The Correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, Henry More, and their...